My Personal Guitar Notation
A '|' is used to denote measures.
A '%' means play the same chord as before.
If there are two letters seperated by a slash (e.g. G/F#)
this means play the chord corresponding to the first letter (G major)
but use the note corresonding to the second letter (F#) as a base note.
I try to label each major beat (1st & 3rd in 4/4 time) with a chord.
If any further chords are listed, each receives half the remaining time:
i.e. if 2 chords are listed in the 2nd half of the measure, each would have a
quarter note value, and if there were 2 chords listed in the position of what
would be a quarter note, they would each have an eighth-note value.
On the singing end, a '.' should mean there is an eighth-note rest,
and '..' should mean a quarter-note rest. However, I've gotten lazy,
and they might just mean "wait a sec." This isn't supposed to be
able to teach you a song you've never heard, but it should help out on
some of the rhythms.
Oh, and <chorus>: (with a ':') means the following is the chorus.
Otherwise, (without a ':') it just means go back to the chorus.
One last addendum:
lower case letters up where chords are generally listed are actually
individual notes you should hit on your guitar. I know that there is
ambiguity concerning which octave the notes should be played in.
To this I say: you'll probably have to figure it out from a recording.